Download of The Day: Debian Linux 7 ( Wheezy )

Debian GNU/Linux version 7.0 Wheezy has been released ( jump to download ) after many months of constant development and available for download in various media format. Debian 7.0 is a free operating system includes various new features such as multiarch support, several specific tools to deploy private clouds, an improved installer, and a complete set of multimedia codecs and front-ends which remove the need for third-party repositories.

Fig.01: Debian Linux 7.0 Desktop

What’s new in Debian v7.0?

Multiarch support allow you to install packages from multiple architectures on the same machine. This means that you can now, for the first time, install both 32- and 64-bit software on the same machine and have all the relevant dependencies correctly resolved, automatically.

Debian wheezy comes with improved multimedia support: ffmpeg has been replaced by the libav fork (libav-tools), which is considered to feature a more conservative release process and thus fit better to Debian’s needs. It provides all libraries and prepares an upgrade path for existing application packages. The full-featured libav libraries and frontends include e.g. mplayer, mencoder, vlc and transcode. Additional codec support is provided e.g. through lame for MP3 audio encoding, xvidcore for MPEG-4 ASP video encoding, x264 for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video encoding, vo-aacenc for AAC audio encoding and opencore-amr and vo-amrwbenc for Adaptive Multi-Rate Narrowband and Wideband encoding and decoding, respectively. For most use cases, installation of packages from third-party repositories should not be necessary anymore. The times of crippled multimedia support in Debian are finally over!

Many Debian packages have now been built with gcc compiler hardening flags enabled.

Debian 7.0 supports the AppArmor Mandatory Access Control system.

Debian 7.0 includes the OpenStack suite as well as the Xen Cloud Platform (XCP), allowing users to deploy their own cloud infrastructure.

A list of updated software:

Apache 2.2.22

Asterisk 1.8.13.1

GIMP 2.8.2

Gnome 3.4

GNU Compiler Collection 4.7.2

Iceweasel 10 (an unbranded version of Mozilla Firefox)

KDE Plasma Workspaces and KDE Applications 4.8.4

kFreeBSD kernel 8.3 and 9.0

LibreOffice 3.5.4

Linux kernel 3.2

MySQL 5.5.30

Nagios 3.4.1

OpenJDK 6b27 and 7u3

Perl 5.14.2

PHP 5.4.4

PostgreSQL 9.1

Python 2.7.3 and 3.2.3

Samba 3.6.6

Tomcat 6.0.35 and 7.0.28

Xen Hypervisor 4.1.4

Xfce 4.8

X.Org 7.7

Debian 7 Download

Debian provides all packages on CD / DVD, live images and the total size is around 32GB+ for all media files. You only need to download first CD / DVD and install the base system. Once downloaded, use the Internet to install any packages.

32 bit vs 64 bit Debian Linux 7 Version

For almost all PCs use 32 bit version. For e.g., most machines with Intel/AMD type processors.

Choose 64 bit version to take full advantage of computers based on the AMD64 or EM64T architecture (e.g., Athlon64, Opteron, EM64T Xeon, Core 2 duo).

You can try Debian by booting a live system from a CD, DVD or USB key without installing any files to the computer. When you are ready, you can run the included installer. Provided the images meet your size, language, and package selection requirements, this method may be suitable for most users.

No offense to the poster of this article but it is flawed and does have wrong links. One posting reference to and “how tos” about linux distros should really take the time to make sure that what they are posting is UP TO DATE and accurate. And mostly correct links… but if people reading this really want to understand this OS go right to the source. Linux is nothing to mess with. If you are asking which DVD you need then you have a lot more reading to do before you even get started.,

Don’t you know if a newbie user like me, needs a simple sentence “Download 1st DVD”? I never intended to download Debian because I don’t know I can use it by just 1st DVD/CD. I didn’t have enough bandwidth for all. And no time. Now I know, and I am downloading. Thank you.